Artwork piles up quickly when kids are in school, and you can't save it all. But you can save some of it, either in its true form or digitally. / Ginger Huebner/Special to WNC Parent

Written by

Ginger Huebner, WNC Parent columnist

A friend recently asked me how I have stored my children’s artwork over the years. It is a great question, and like many parents, I have a hard time tossing what comes home or what is created at home. My current methods are in no way perfect, and I have accepted the challenge of finding other ideas. Here are my findings.

You must be selective in what artwork you keep. One method to help with this is to allow a pile of work to grow over a month’s time. At the end of the month, look through it with your child. Let them decide what they would like to keep. Then, narrow it down one more time by asking them to pick their top 10 (or five, etc).

Storing original work can be a wonderful way to look back with your child years down the road at their many stages of creating. All of the ideas below can be kept in a series and labeled with each child’s name and year:

• Pizza boxes or plastic bins are a good option for storing larger pieces.

• Three-ring binders and sheet protectors work well to collect work that is more close to 8.5-by-11 in size. It also offers an easier method for looking through the work.

• Cardboard tubes can protect all sizes of works for years. This method could be wonderful for long-term storage.

There are also methods of cataloging your child’s work digitally instead of physically. Here are some options once you photograph the original work:

• Artwork photo albums: Print the photos of the works and place them in a photo album.

• Publish a photo book: You can create a book of just your child’s artwork online through the many photo websites.

• PDF gallery: You can create a PDF file of all the works that can be sent to many or easily viewed on the computer.

• Apps: More recent options for cataloging artwork are apps on the smart-phones and tablet devices. There are two that I can across that provide a great option for digital history of work: Artkive and Art My Kid Made.

Whether you are hoping to save original work or digitize all of it, I do believe it is a worthwhile effort that will provide sweet moments down the road with you and your child.